Vlad 'Dracula' Tepes

Sighisoara Travel Blog

Early morning rise to catch a train that will take us from Budapest into Romania and drop us off at Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes the “real” Dracula.
This will be the first time into Romania for all three of us. Colin and
I wanted to come over here in ’06 but I did not have enough time left
on my passport to enter the country. One must have over 6 months left
on their passport to travel into Romania .

While purchasing the train tickets
for the day we also had to purchase a compulsory reservation, in other
words a “seat tax!” They should just call it what it is and not have
the fancy name for it. With tickets and compulsory reservation in hand
we jumped aboard our train and settled in for a long ride through the
Hungarian and Romanian countryside. Not long after crossing into
Romania we had another ticket check, but this time the Romanian
conductor informed us our compulsory reservation was good in Hungary
but we needed one for Romania . “WHAT!!!!” The best part is that he
wanted Romanian currency; I’m sure we are the first tourists to come
over the border without the local currency! I asked if we could pay in
Euros or Hungarian currency. “I will have to check” was his response.
Well sure enough we paid in Euros and once again we had a lovely “seat
tax” err compulsory reservation for our seats. Few minutes later I took
out my laptop to do some writing and the conductor stopped to say
something to me. Honest to God
I thought he was going to tell me there was a compulsory fee on laptop
use; but he was just pointing out that there was a power source I could
use.

The Romanian countryside is very beautiful away from the cities, once the train got close to the cities it became what most Romanians
must view as a large garbage dump. I say this because it looks like
people must drive up to the edge of a road and say, “Well this looks
good enough” and dump their trash. Along with all the trash everywhere
there were some massive old run down power plants that looked like they
have not been used in over 50 years. Melinda and I scouted some great
places to shoot some post apocalyptic films while on the train ride
today.

We got off the train at the small train station in Sighisoara; some dark storm clouds loom over head as we walk to the hostel. Along the way we watched a dog chase cars
down the street. I have always heard stories about dogs chasing cars
but have never seen one actually chase after cars. This one would
hunker down at the sight of the car then sprint after the wheels
barking his head off. The dog seemed to be keeping pace with us and
chasing every car that went by. I kept expecting to hear a yelp at any
moment from the dog being ran over, but the dog finally gave up and
walked off. The hostel we are staying at is an alright place, seems to
be ran by a few Australians. I swear for a hostel to be official it has
to have at least one Australian employed sometime during the travel
season. We dropped our gear off and headed out to see the small city of
Sighisoara , check out Vlad’s birth house, get some dinner and take
some pictures at night. Vlad’s home is now a two story building, only
the ground floor is original. There is now a gelato shop on the ground
floor and a restaurant up on the 2nd floor, or as the Europeans would call it, the 1st
floor. For dinner we decided to dine in the restaurant above Vlad’s
house; it was an alright meal but a little on the bland side. After
dinner Melinda and I got in a bunch of night shots of the buildings.
Colin ended up walking back to crash at the hostel. Melinda and I
continued to walk the city and see all the cool old buildings. We
eventually ended up in the cemetery perched high above the city. To get
to the cemetery we had to ascend 179 stairs that are enclosed in a
wooden structure built in 1642 to help children get to school. I looked
at my watch and noticed it was midnight ; perfect time for a lovely
stroll through a Transylvanian graveyard! After climbing all the steps
we stood at the foot of the 15th century church and the
graveyard that was in pitch black. We walked back into the beginning of
the graveyard and stopped. In the distance we could hear dogs howling
and the moon was peaking through the dark clouds above. I don’t think I
could have envisioned a scary situation, for a fleeting moment visions
of vampires and spooky spirits danced through my head as we walked
further into the darkness. I had my flashlight out and ready, but not
much further Melinda wanted to stop and I was alright with that. I was
now a little more worried about some locals being back in the dark
cemetery or a pack of dogs back there that might see us as a midnight
snack. Or were we a little afraid of what we might find back there,
dead or alive? Nerves put aside I was not feeling that well anyways, my
cough has gotten really bad and this cold night air is not doing it any
favors. So we turned around and headed back to the hostel. As we made
the descent down the covered stairs I kept casting a weary glance up
the stairs expecting at any moment to see a dark cloaked figure
standing at the top looking down at us.

Finally arriving back to the hostel we crawled into bed around 01:30 and I settled in for a long night of hacking my lungs out.

Another
fun part of Romania that I would soon discover; my Visa ATM card does
not work over here. Glad I was told this when I specifically told my
card company well in advance which countries I would be traveling
through.

Tomorrow we are off to Brasov , Romania where we will be staying for two nights.